By Pat French
Some people measure the evolution of music by decades, some by the popularization of new genres. There are those that begin an age with the release of a groundbreaking album and end it with the death of a timeless rocker. Some people don’t think a musical era can be objectively measured until a significant period of time has passed. Still others are positive that we can only understand what’s happening when it’s happening, that it’s impossible to appreciate a musical phenomenon unless you “were there.”
Well, none of these people know what they’re talking about. There’s only one true way to measure and distinguish the eras of pop music: Weird Al Yankovic. An era begins after a weird Al album and ends when his next album is released. The last era ended in 2011 and was labeled “Alpocalypse.” On July 15th of this year the current era will end and be labeled “Mandatory Fun.”
That’s right kids, seemingly out of nowhere Weird Al has a new album coming out. Not only that, his marketing plan for this album is absolutely bonkers. He’s had no commercials, no ads, and not even a single. For those of you only marginally familiar with Weird Al (you terrible, terrible people), it’s kind of insane for him to release an album without a parody of some catchy pop song (Fess up. You all know the words to Amish Paradise). The only thing even kind of traditional Al has done to promote this album was an interview with Rolling Stone.
The timeline goes something like this: June 11th, your life was boring and mediocre. June 12th, Al puts an image of a burned CD on his facebook page with the caption “Just got done mastering. Ladies and gentlemen, here it is… my NEW ALBUM.” June 14th, a cryptic picture of Al in some sort of fascist uniform with the date July 15th written below in the style of Soviet era Propaganda. June 15th, The aforementioned Rolling Stone Article. June 16th, Al guests on Epic Rap Battles of History (a hilarious internet series. If you haven’t seen it, I left you a surprise at the bottom of the page) as Sir Isaac Newton and releases a bizarre propaganda-esque video teaser for the album. June 18th, he makes the album available for preorder on Amazon. Also June 18th, the preorder page on Amazon crashes because people need their Yankovic. Also June 18th, Mandatory Fun becomes the highest selling Album on Amazon. June continues with a couple more ambiguous video promos and album art (all maintaining the Soviet propaganda theme).
Then came today’s (June 29th) news, and boy howdy was it a doozy. Al released this message via facebook:
“A lot of people have been wondering when I’m going to release the lead single for “Mandatory Fun.” Well, here’s the thing… there IS no “lead single” for my new album. I’ll be releasing 12 “singles” all at once on July 15 – so you can decide for YOURSELF which songs are the hits!
By the way, I’ll have 8 – that’s right, 8 – brand new music videos… and I’ll be world-premiering one every single day for eight days straight, starting on July 14!
Get excited!!!”
And at that point I pooed my pants. We literally only know two more things about this album. Patton Oswalt apparently got to have a listen and claims that Al “Satirizes a band I’ve worshipped since the 90’s.” That could mean freaking anything. I’m hoping for Pearl Jam myself. TMZ also got a scoop that Al asked Iggy Azalea (whom I know nothing about) if he could parody one of her songs.
I leave you with this moment of Zen as you contemplate what to do with yourself for the next 16 days: